On the streets of northwest Syria, Syrians celebrated the fall of the al-Assad regime.Dia Images/Abaca/ZUMA

In an unexpected development Saturday night, Syrian rebels who had been fighting government forces for over a decade, captured the capital city of Damascus, bringing an end to a more than decade-long civil war and an even longer reign of terror by the family of President Bashar al-Assad.

Opposition forces reportedly announced on national television, “The city of Damascus has been liberated. The tyrant Bashar al-Assad has been toppled.” They added that they had also freed prisoners from the prison complex Sednaya, a major facility on the outskirts of the capital city.

The developments mark a stunning end to the 24-year reign of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, 59, whose late father, Hafez al-Assad, was president for nearly three decades. Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Assad has gone to brutal lengths to cling to power—including by deploying devastating chemical attacks on civilians, including children. All told, by 2022, more than 306,000 civilians had been killed in the war, according to the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner.

According to Russian state media, Assad has fled with his family to Moscow. The Syrian Prime Minister, Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, reportedly said he is ready to........

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